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This pokemon is quite reliable with defense and can make a good attacker. Its only decent ability is sturdy and thanks to this you don't have to worry about one hit kills and you are almost guaranteed at lest one hit with it. Roost can provide a good back for healing when the time is right too.
Ability: Sturdy
Nature: any one that boosts attack/defense
Moves:
Night slash
Steel wing
sky attack
roost

Got Pokémon X. Intend to get either Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire.
No info about my Friend Safari.
Vivillon Pattern: Polar
Looking for nicknamed, shiny, and/or have a hidden ability in GTS and may battle at anytime.
If interested, send a private message with your ID #.

Counters: Heatran, Heatran, Heatran! This is Skarmory's worse enemy in OU. One simple Fire Blast will roast the bird. Actually any strong Fire STAB can hurt it like Ninetales and others. Scarf Magnezone gets a mention as it can outspeed Skarmory, trap it with Magnet Pull and destroy it with ThunderBolt.

Ability Compendium:Keen Eye: Opponent cannot lower this Pokémon’s accuracy.
I know useless abilities as soon as I see them.
Unless you are using Skarmory in-game (and the Steel Bird has better abilities) don't use this ability, well, you can stop Sand-attack with that...Sturdy: The Pokémon is unaffected by One Hit Knock Out moves and in Generation V, the Pokémon cannot be knocked out when it has full Hit Points.
By far one of the most annoying and useful abilities for Skarmory.
It's a free Focus Sash and stops you from being killed mainly by Special Attacks (be careful of Stealth Rock).Weak Armor: When hit by an attack, the Pokémon's Defense is lowered by one stage but Speed is increased by one stage.
Well, if you have some sort of offensive-minded set which doesn't mind sacrificing some defense... nope, too situational too be useful. Sturdy is better.

Cons:
Lower than average defenses besides Defense (65/140/70) and Speed (70)
Forgettable Sp. Atk (40)
Two common weaknesses to Fire and Electric and most of those attacks are special
Sunny weather exposes its Fire weakness
Lack of a super ugly evolution, that would be the perfect excuse to slap Eviolite

@LeftoversAbility: SturdyNature:
Careful/ImpishEVs:
252 Sp. Def, the rest can be invested in HP and Def
Atk EVs are optional (if you have an offensive-minded set)

About the moves, Skarmory has lots of options...Agility increases Skarmory's lower than average Speed and has sinergy with Iron HeadAssurance is super useful if your opponent switches, however that requires some prediction skills to use it effectivelyAutotomize is a buffed up version of Agility which also reduces damage taken by Heat Crash and Low Kick (which nobody uses anyway), useful with Iron Head and Weak ArmorBrave Bird hits hard but there's the recoil meaning Weak Armor is the best option in that caseCurse if you don't mind trading Speed for extra Attack and bulk.Entry Hazards such as Spikes and everybody's favorite Steath Rock. Skarmory has the defenses to pull out entry hazardsEviolite if Game Freak is nice enough to give an evolution to Skarmory in Gen VI... but until then DON'T use EvioliteIron Defense raises your Defense to obscene levels but doesn't stop you from being hit by Flamethrower or Thunderbolt.Iron Head gets STAB and flinches opponents if Skarmory is faster than them (flinching is nice, you know), has good sinergy with Agility/Autotomize and/or Weak ArmorNight Slash is for coveragePayback if you are using a Curse setPhazer moves like Roar and Whirlwind, perfect if you have enery hazards, which Skarmory can use itself, but be careful of their negative priority.Pursuit if you are facing Psychics and GhostsReturn is another coverage moveRoost heals Skarmory and helps him regaining Sturdy if it's lost due to battle or passive damage, good with LeftoversSlash if you for some reason are using Night Slash and Scope LensSwords Dance if you are focusing on an offensive setTailwind supports your slower partnersTaunt to basically avoiding being a Taunt bait and avoiding the enemies' set-ups (unless you are facing Prankster Taunters)Toxic to slowing crippling non-Poison and Steel-types

You can also just trade Brave Bird for another one of the entry hazards. Skarmory won't be able to wall physical hits so effectively, but with this spread it can now resist some special moves. Besides Heatran, which was already mentioned on the thread, Skarmory's biggest nemesis is Magnezone. It will trap Skarmory with Magnet Pull and destroy it with its electric moves, and Skarmory can only whirlwind it away. Or you can trade Leftovers for Shed Shell, but it's not recommended.

Kraleck's Poke-Analysis
Stats:
-HP - Slightly-Below Average - Base 65 isn't good, but it's not bad either.
-Attack - Average - Base 80 is nothing special (I use Base 80 as my Average for non-HP stats), but it's a lot better than that Base 40 Sp.Atk.
-Defense - Incredible - Base 140 is amazing, but consider how many Electric- and Fire-Type Moves are actually Physical...
-Sp.Atk - Bad - Base 40 is worthless compared to that Base 80 Attack.
-Sp.Def - Below Average - The Base 70 combined with the Base 65 HP gets you slaughtered by Special Moves, especially when you consider how many Electric- and Fire-Type Moves are Special.
-Speed - Second Place Finisher - Base 70 falls into what I call the "Second Place Zone": A range of Mediocre Base Speeds between 51 and 79 that are reliable for neither Trick Room Speed nor standard Speed. In either case, you're usually coming in "Second Place" on Speed.

Abilities:
-Keen Eye - Better than Sturdy...but only if you're in Gen 3 or 4...
-Sturdy - Gen 5 blessed this with a Focus Sash Effect, but you must beware of a lucky Burn-Hax from Fire-Type Moves or Scald.
-Weak Armor - At least you have a way to boost your Speed, but I wouldn't recommend losing your Defense to do so with Skarmory...

If Skarmory is doing something else, Skarmory is not being used correctly. Simple as that. Spikes is entry hazard, Roost heals, Whirlwind phazes. Brave Bird is Skarmory's heaviest hitting attack, but Drill Peck is a fine option if recoil on a defensive Pokemon turns you off. Taunt stops anything that will want to set up on you.

Other options:
Stealth Rock can be used over Spikes for more immediate hazard dropping. Toxic lets Skarmory act as a good status platform, but there are better things at that (Whimsicott anyone?). Shed Shell helps escape from Magnezone. Want to stat boost? Bad idea. Skarmory is begging for Taunt as it is.

Poor Skarmory. People must rely on him more and more with physical sweepers like Terrakion around, but his job is just getting harder because finding a check is getting so much easier. Stop it with pretty much anyone with Thunder/bolt, including Zapdos, Jirachi, Rotom, and especially Magnezone/ton, while Forretress, Tentacruel, and kind of Ferrothorn set up hazards all over Skarm. A lot of boosters and walls with Taunt can muzzle the bird. These include Gyrados, Jellicent and Gliscor. Still, it is a fantastic check to new new dragons like Garchomp and Kyurem, but when Chandelure receives Shadow Tag, the armored bird may have met its match.

Also, on Duosion's analysis, it says "countering Sneasel." Just saying.

Use to be amazing? Used to be? You've got to be kidding me, Serebii. Skarmory is still one of the best physical walls there is. Spikes, whirlwind, 140 base defense, roost...Skarmory is one of the best walls to exist.

Originally Posted by your boss

Counters: Heatran, Heatran, Heatran! This is Skarmory's worse enemy in OU. One simple Fire Blast will roast the bird. Actually any strong Fire STAB can hurt it like Ninetales and others. Scarf Magnezone gets a mention as it can outspeed Skarmory, trap it with Magnet Pull and destroy it with ThunderBolt.

Nope, Magnezone is Skarmory's worst foe, and it doesn't even need a scarf. It has a x4 resistance to brave bird, and whirlwind has negative priority. The bird also only runs 24 speed EVs most of the time, so Magnezone is perfectly capable of outrunning it without a scarf.

Zoroark is my favorite check for it, and makes an excellent pseudo-trapper. Generally, when Skarmory users see Magnezone, they get extremely catious, and play Skarmory very, very carefully. Surprisingly, with Zoroark, if you save it for later in the game, they seem to forget about the fox and let their guard down, pretty much giving you a free win, if you manage to get Zoroark in on it disguised as a physical attacker.

Rotom-W, or any of the Rotom forms, really, are immune to spikes, resist brave bird, and carry STAB volt switch, forcing it out and giving you offensive momentum.

Poor speed, poor attack, no priority...this thing is a gimmick at best. Tell me, is there any any real reason to use this over SD Scizor? I guess weak armor could help boost it's speed...but honestly? Honestly?

Please, for the love of Arceus, no offensive Skarmories. If I even see one in other options, I'm going to cry. Sure, it's "creative" and "surprising", but that doesn't exactly mean it's good.

Poor Skarmory. People must rely on him more and more with physical sweepers like Terrakion around, but his job is just getting harder because finding a check is getting so much easier. Stop it with pretty much anyone with Thunder/bolt, including Zapdos, Jirachi, Rotom, and especially Magnezone/ton, while Forretress, Tentacruel, and kind of Ferrothorn set up hazards all over Skarm. A lot of boosters and walls with Taunt can muzzle the bird. These include Gyrados, Jellicent and Gliscor. Still, it is a fantastic check to new new dragons like Garchomp and Kyurem, but when Chandelure receives Shadow Tag, the armored bird may have met its match.

Forretress and Ferrothorn can't set up on it at all if it runs taunt. And sure, Gliscor can learn taunt, but what can it do against Skarmory besides that? Toxic? Earthquake? Good luck. Ice Fang? Sure, but don't expect to get much done.

Not much to say here, skarmory is really one side in the way its just defensive. Seeing as its defensive sets have been post already, not really a point of reposting them. Skarmory has one of the highest defensive stats in OU, but with the power shift in BW, skarmory has trouble doing its job, plus he faces competition with gliscor who has superior recovery, and ferrothorn who has some more resistances and better sp defense. That being said, skarmory still has a few niches in the for, of sturdy, allowing his to survive a hit at full health, and his flying-steel type gives him resistances to ground moves, which where espcially common BW 1 with sand domination. With the release of BW2, skarmory has fallen in grace due to the commonness of hydro pump and thunder, evern hurricane iirc, plus with the increase of special sweepers like landorus i and the overall offensive tempo of the current metagame, skarmory has trouble doing its job, but is still usable

When thinking of pure physical walls, 3 pokemon comes to my mind. Forretress, Weezing and skarmory! These 3 pokemon can take any physical attack even super effective ones and retaliates with a crippling status or set up entry hazards. It is really very hard to stop them using physical moves and for that they force a lot of switches without the need of phazing. While weezing dropped to NU for the lack of recovery and hazards, skarmory and forretress are still playing with the big guys and they are the only ones that they can brag on their ability to stop a +2 ATT haxorus using outrage. While forretress is a little better in it's job taking advantage of a better typing and access to rapid spin, skarmory can differentiate itself with it's access to a more reliable recovery move in roost and a better speed, attack and the move whirlwind that puts an end to baton pass chains teams and rack up residual damage. Skarmory is amazing in it's job, but nothing comes without it's flaws. Skarmory's speed is an issue as it is not reliable in any sort of play style. Base 70 speed means that it is outsped by a lot of pokemon under normal circumstances and under trick room. Skarmory's special defense is not good, combined with it's low HP means that skarmoy would fall to any special hit especially Super effective ones and the fact that it is weak to fire and electric, mostly special moves, do not help in this regard.

Nevertheless, skarmory has the right stats to do it's job well. Now that sturdy is buffed up, it is become better in supporting your team. However the rise of new pokemon and counter every gen is making it's job harder and harder to pull off! Support skarmory well and it will support you right! Keep it away from it's counters_that are not that many_and you'll be fine!

actually when I think of defensive I think Ferrothorn and Slowbro before I think of Weezing...(they can heal and tank)

On a serious note as the primary Skarmory set has been listed... I will point out the plight of poor Skarmory is there to all of the gen 5 walls Offense has gotten crazy power while defense only really gained Eviolite and Sturdy & Regenerator ( technically there is multiscale for the 2 Pokemon that got it ) maybe gen 6 can balance it back out again...

Three questions you should ask when facing Skarm:
1. Can I tank its Average Base Attack and myriad of Traps?
2. Can I use Special Moves to great effect?
3. Why did I forget about Sturdy's new effect in Gen 5?

Okay, that last one's more of a joke, but the first two are key to taking Skarmory down if it tries to (or has to) stand its ground. Magnezone is an easy win - double resists both of Skarm's STAB Types, has STAB on Skarm's Electric Weakness, Magnet Pull Ability access, and great Defense and Sp.Atk. Other than Magnezone, Skarmory can't do STAB damage effectively on Wash Rotom and most Steel Types. Pokemon with better-than-Base-70 Speed and access to Flamethrower/Thunderbolt and massive Sp.Atk can shut down any Skarm user brave or stupid enough to stay in. If Empoleon can Burn-hax with STAB Scald, Skarm's Sturdy has been neutralized.

Espeon and Xatu's Dream World Ability, Magic Bounce, is another way to screw Skarm over. Spikes, Stealth Rock, Roar, and Whirlwind are all sent back Skarm's way and both have plenty of Speed to make Skarm think twice about trying anything funny. The only drawback is that Espeon requires Hidden Power (Fire or Electric) and Xatu is limited to either one of those Hidden Power Types or Heat Wave. Then again, if Skarm has to get aggressive with Offensive Moves, Ferrothorn's Iron Barbs or Sharpedo, Druddigon, or Garchomp's Rough Skin can get the chip needed to neutralize Sturdy.

Wee, Skarmory. One of the oldest support pokemon around (even if I don't see it being used very much anymore). It has an insane Defense stat, but mediocre everything else, including typing. One of the nice things about Skarmory tho is that it has a great support movepool, with access to Spikes, Stealth Rock, Roost, Whirlwind, and Sturdy to set everything up at least once. Overall, a nice pokemon for support, but that's really all it does. On to abilities, even though it only really has one good one.

Keen Eye: Easily one of the most useless abilities in the game, as not a single pokemon I can think of uses any Accuracy-lowering moves.Sturdy: This is really what helps make Skarmory Skarmory. It allows it to set up at least one hazard, which is super helpful.Weak Armor (DW): Lowers your Defense by one stage and raises Attack by one stage when hit by a physical attack. It would be helpful, but a) Skarmory has a pathetic physical movepool and b) by the time you've gotten enough of a boost to actually be helpful, you'll have such low health and Defense that you won't be able to do much.

It's a metal bird! No, not a plane, a Skarmory!
-Roost
-Stealth Rock
-Whirlwind
-Spikes/Drill Peck
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs and Nature: Impish (+Def, -Sp. Atk)
252 Hp/252 Def/4 Spd
This is a typical set for this airpla--excuse me--bird. Roost is to help sustain a bit longer, while Stealth Rock is, well, Stealth Rock. Whirlwind is to spread the love, and the last move is up to you, between Spikes for more hazards, or Drill Peck to prevent being Taunt bait and maybe finish off someone who's been damaged a ton by the hazards. You can replace SR with Spikes, but I personally prefer SR so that you will have hazards that hurt everyone for at least some damage. EVs and Nature for bulk, in case you need a physical wall.

Other OptionsBrave Bird is what most people use over Drill Peck for the damage output, but I prefer Drill Peck as Brave Bird kills Sturdy, one of Skarmory's defining features.Toxic and Protect can be put in to make Skarmory a staller...?

Countering Skarmory
I mean, there's really not that much to counter. Unless you want to prevent it from setting hazards, in which case you want Espeon or Xatu for Magic Bounce. This really annoys Skarmory and essentially kills it. Meanwhile, Taunt is also frustrating, especially if it isn't running Drill Peck/Brave Bird. If you want to kill it, just keep hitting it with SE moves until it dies, but make sure to have a spinner, as it will set up on you while you try to kill it.

I'm known by the name Magiclapras everywhere. So if you think you know me from somewhere... you probably do.
Part time shiny hunter, former competitive battler, anime watcher, dragon empress and all around top bloke.

Curse (the signature move of this set)
Roost (to recover from damage while setting up)
Drill peck (For great damage after some curse boosts)
Spikes/Whirlwind (Whirlwind for getting rid of special sweepers, and set up Pokemon who would outclass Skarmory in the long run. Like swords dance Scizor/Garchomp)

Rocky helmet can be a great way to stall out opponents that are not able to take out skarmory before it gains Curse boosts. When the opponent attacks, the rocky helmet will gradually drain the HP of their Pokemon.
The ev's in Special defense and HP are to make skarmory able to take at least some moderately damaging special attacks without biting the dust. With curse it is not necessary to put as many EV's in defense as most Skarmory sets would use.
Roost is used to recover and be able to set up another curse to increase attack and defense.
The last slot gives a choice between Whirlwind and Spikes. Whirlwind can be used to get rid of Pokemon locking Skarmory in, like Magnet pull Magnezone. As well as getting rid of special sweepers temporarily. Spikes is the better choice for teams which dont have many entry hazards yet. Or for teams that would like to add more entry hazards to their ranks.

* Note : Curse is aquired by chain breeding Pokemon

This set of moves can be quite fun to use in a trick room team. Thanks to it's rock bottom speed when using multiple curse.